Hearing devices usually have to be adjusted to the needs and preferences of the user of the hearing device. This adjusting, also referred to as fitting, is typically done during several fitting sessions. The fitting may involve the measurement of audiograms and other audiological data of the user, an initial fitting and several steps of fine-tuning the fitting as well as the definition of several hearing programs providing for an optimized hearing sensation in different acoustic environments. This is known, in particular, in the field of hearing-aid devices. Hearing device fitting requires very specific skills, and it is different for different hearing device users, since the hearing abilities of each user are very individual. Therefore, the fitting and the corresponding programming of the hearing devices is usually done by an audiologist or another hearing care professional.
Typically, the hearing care professional has a programming environment with one or several computers, each of which has an interface unit to connect to a hearing device or to a pair of hearing devices. The provision of several computers allows working with several hearing device users at the same time, typically in different examination rooms. Hearing devices of different hearing device manufacturers require the use of different programming software for fitting, also referred to as fitting programs. In order to simplify dealing with different fitting programs, software-hardware platforms with dedicated interfaces have been developed, which allow to connect hearing devices of different hearing device manufacturers to said dedicated interface attached to a general purpose computer. By means of the software of such a software-hardware platform, a hearing-device-manufacturer-specific fitting program can be launched, with the information, what kind of hearing device model shall be fitted and for which specific user the hearing device shall be fitted. This way, the appropriate type and version of the hearing-device-manufacturer-specific fitting program is launched, or appropriate parameters in the hearing-device-manufacturer-specific fitting program are set, and data related to the hearing of the user, like audiograms, as well as former hearing device settings, are in access and used in the hearing-device-manufacturer-specific fitting program. A well-known example of such a software-hardware platform in the field of hearing-aid devices is known as “NOAH”.
The invention arose from the desire for time savings in fitting sessions, without decreasing the quality of the fitting.
It has turned out that it takes a considerable amount of time to launch a fitting software, even if performed by a software-hardware platform as described above.
The inventive ideas solving that problem turned out to be applicable to further problems, too, like the dispensing of consumables or accessories for hearing devices.
The unpublished patent applications with the application numbers U.S. Ser. No. 11/395,788 and EP 06 112 108.3 of the same applicant, filed on Mar. 31, 2006, and entitled “Method and system for adjusting a hearing device”, disclose a method for wirelessly adjusting one or more hearing devices, by using a wireless network or wireless transmitter, respectively. By means of this, an audiologist can unambiguously assign one or two hearing devices in a fitting session, even if multiple hearing devices lie on the desktop within the range of the wireless network or wireless transmitter, respectively.
US 2002/0054689 A1 discloses a method and a system for remotely upgrading a hearing device by downloading software resources over a network from a remote server to a local client.